In known installations, it is known to use an air/refrigerant-fluid exchanger within a heating and air-conditioning apparatus to heat the passenger compartment via the condensation of hot gases leaving a compressor, for example by employing a heat pump. This implies the use of an external exchanger in order for the air conditioning to operate. This is because the disposal of the heat energy into the surroundings always takes place by the use of an air/refrigerant fluid exchanger which is located outside the passenger compartment, or by passing through an intermediate fluid such as water. In this latter case, a first loop makes it possible to take up the heat energy in a water/refrigerant-fluid exchanger, and subsequently a second loop allows this same heat energy to be disposed of into the surroundings by means of an air/water exchanger.
It is also known to use a water/refrigerant fluid exchanger as a condenser as described in the French Patent Application No. FR 2 761 405 filed on 27 Mar. 1997 by the Applicant. This embodiment, which gives flexibility of location of this exchanger, needs overcooled water to be available, having a temperature close to 55° C., in order to be able to condense the refrigerant fluid correctly at acceptable levels of pressure and of energy consumption. In these embodiments, the exchanger is placed outside the passenger compartment and, obviously, outside the airconditioning apparatus.
Moreover, all the solutions described above exhibit the drawback of making use of a heating element (heating radiator) which operates only in cold weather or in order to de-humidify, and a condenser which operates only in hot weather or in order to dehumidify.
The basic idea of the present invention is to group together the heating element and the condenser into a single element which will operate in both modes.